Studios Issue Pink Slips to Producers

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Not even Hugh Jackman can dance his way out of this one...

By Travis Fickett

With the writers' strike in its 11th week, studios are looking for a way to cut costs. This has come down in the form of "termination letters" to a wide array of writers and producers. What's being terminated in this case are "overall" deals – which are arrangements with studios in which writers or producers give the studio first crack at their projects while the studio pays a fee and overhead expenses (like staff and development costs). An awful lot of those deals are being ended. Among the terminated is Hugh Jackman, who was a producer on the much maligned and quickly cancelled Viva Laughlin.

Other producers to get cut from their respective studios – according to Daily Variety – include Kevin Falls (Journeyman), Barry Schindel (Numbers), Larry Kaplow (K-Ville), Matt Silverstein and Dave Jesser (Drawn Together and the upcoming Unhitched), David Guarascio and Moses Port (Aliens in America), Peter Horton (Dirty Sexy Money), and others. In total – and this is only so far – 75 deals have been cut across town.

To be clear, this does not mean these shows have been cancelled. It just means that development deals have been terminated, effectively ending studios' current relationship with those writers or producers. How such a massive cleaning of house will affect the development of future television projects is unclear, but it's a fairly dramatic (and some would argue drastic) volley fired by the AMPTP over the WGA's bow.